Quickguide to: Content Marketing

TABLE of contents: Content Marketing

In this e-book we’ll explore:

Chapter 1: Basics of Content Marketing

Chapter 2: Types of Content

Chapter 3: Content Marketing Strategies to Avoid

Chapter 4: Content Marketing Strategies to Embrace

Chapter 5: Sponsoring Content

Chapter 6: Frustrated? We @ Mr. SEO can help

Chapter 1: Basics of Content Marketing

Overview: Content marketing is defined as “marketing involvement in the

manor of creation and sharing media; publishing content in the attempt to attract and retain customers. Content marketing can come in many different formats, and gains strength depending on the aggressiveness you present it. Some formats include white papers, infographics, e-books, Blog and more, most content should be one of the following:

Funny

Controversial

Slightly Yet Professionally offensive

Extremely Informative

All of the Above

Let’s be honest, this book you’re reading right now is Content Marketing.

But Content Marketing can be much more sophisticated or much less sophisticated

depending on your goals and your audience.

The key, we find, is embracing the world of your target market and then speaking

directly to it.

Chapter 2: Types of Content

Overview: Broadly speaking, content marketing can be broken down into 4 major

areas. Printed word. Audio. Visual and Video. Each area has its strengths and

weaknesses and most have a few target markets that they work with a little more

effectively than others. This chapter will explore this to a greater degree.

Printed Word – With video and images becoming easier to download, upload and

promote online, the written word is slowly losing its popularity. However, until it

becomes possible to transfer thoughts and concepts from one person to another

instantly, full formed the written word will continue to be an important aspect of content

marketing online.

Blogs: Blogs or “weblogs” have been around for almost as long as the internet.

They initially started as people’s personal logs on how their day went. They have

since evolved into a little bit of focus on personality but the majority of the focus

is on how the blog author or authors can be helpful to their audience. We would

suggest that you first and foremost try and figure out how you or your product

can solve your target market’s problem or pain.

Press Releases: Even in the internet age it is still understood that many local

news stories are inspired by press releases. Despite that fact, your press release

should not start out “We are a great company that has been in business since

1891…blah blah blah”. Instead make sure that every press release you deliver is

catered toward the medium that is currently presented. Also, if possible cater

towards the leanings of the person editing the media source.

Columns: Depending on your niche and you or your staff’s ability you can

create a great lead creation platform by becoming a columnist on a multi-

authored blog, e-magazine or online version of a nationally known magazine that

caters to your market.

Audio – Ever since the rise of the ipod, digital audio has become the go to with

communicating via sound. A few short years after the ipod came about the word

podcast became more and more well known. Today it is synonymous with Internet

Radio. Audio can be powerful if done correctly or simply white noise or worst, annoying

if done poorly.

> Music – So to be very honest – very few companies have taken advantage of

the power of using simply music or jingles to promote their brand. Your company

or organization has the ability to stand out by taking advantage of this rarely used

genre of audio – many podcasts have their intro music but that is the extent of

the music on their program. If you can come out with a podcast that just has

catchy toons that promote your business or a musical commercial imbedded into

an already established podcast you may stand out from the crowd.

>Podcasts – podcasts are the key known area for brands to talk specifically to

their market. There are comedy podcasts, women podcasts, men podcasts, political

podcasts, motivational podcasts wantrepreneur podcasts, entrepreneur podcasts, small

business owners and even a Donkey Kong Video Game Comedy podcast – to name

only a fraction of the categories. So reaching out to your market is as simple as

determining what your market likes to hear or learn about and start.

1) Audio podcasts: Of the purely audio podcasts, there are generally

speaking, 3 types of formats – Solo, Interview & Multi-host.

a. Solo – Just like it sounds this is a podcast that is only hosted by a solo

individual with no other accompaniment. Solo podcasts are somewhat

hard to come by these days but were prevalent as podcasting began

because few people podcasted. If you find one you’ll notice it feels a lot

like a soliloquy because that’s essentially what it is.

b. Interview – This is a format that can be either serious or funny and

typically depending on the subject is very interesting. A good example of

this is: Entrepreneur on Fire with John Lee Dumas.

c. Multi-host – This is a format where two or more hosts speak on a

specific topic or no topic in particular. A good example of this format might

be Mike & Mike – the ESPN sports podcast.

2) Video – video podcasts are by nature visual. Brands have a variety of ways

to explore, entertain and educate their target market. As far as business goes

target markets that are artistic, creative and have short attention spans are likely

the best to promote to via video.

3) Enhanced – This is a podcast that is typically a combination of photo

slideshow that is paired with precisely timed audio. If you’re a child of the 80’s

and recall the 1980’s format for “reading rainbow” – it’s along those lines. For

those unfamiliar it’s very similar to a PowerPoint presentation with narration.

4) Screencasts – This is a podcast style that is primarily for those looking for

how to do things online. A screencast tracks the screen and mouse actions or an

expert who is typically teaching how to run a certain program or say set up a

Facebook page. This is a powerful option for those in the internet or software

niche as their potential customers will be grateful for information on how to run

things more efficiently or effectively.

Visual

Comics – Here is an example of a fairly niched online comic.

Online comics – when done right, are a great way to engage your target

market and weaken any built in objections or distrust for you or your brand.

An article done by Yesware points out a few reasons that all things being

equal – salespeople who use humor have a slight over those who fail to use

it.

That being said the comics you use should not under any circumstances

include anything racist, sexist, ethnic or political.

Above is another great example of business comic humor.

Infographics – Infographics are charts or diagrams and typically statistics

that are translated into a more visual form. In truth some say infographics

have existed since the beginning of man. As far as digital go, Infographics

were very big and frequently used primarily by businesses in the early 2010’s.

Here is a great example – an infographic about… infographics – courtesy of

thesocialclinic.com:

The great thing about infographics is that depending on your audience, how

well researched your infographic is and how skilled your designer is – your

market will eat up the content and then remember you or your company as the

one responsible for the great information which instantly puts you at an

advantage when your market is looking for an expert in your field.

Memes: is defined by Wikipedia as: "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads

from person to person within a culture". In the digital age it essentially

equates to a funny image, video, or sometimes piece of text that is copied

(often with minor tweaks) and spread virally throughout the internet.

As far as business goes – since memes are hard to control once they go viral,

our advice would be to avoid becoming a part of a meme. And only use them

sparingly or when you’re confident the recipient has a sense of humor. Here’s

a generic business meme found on payanywhere.com’s site. .

Photos – Photos and the other visuals we’ve mentioned above have

become so important in the world of content marketing these days especially

if you have a physical product to sell.

Video – Video is anything with moving pictures and typically sound. With

the technological advancement and in particular the smart phone – the ability

to take photos and high quality video has become ubiquitous. As of 2013 –

Threemotion – a British digital video firm estimates that 78% of people watch

at least one online video a week and 55% watch every day. According to the

Digital Content Next formerly Online Publisher’s Association – 80% of internet

user’s recall watching a video ad on a website they visited and 46% took

some type of action after viewing the ad. One only needs to mention the

words Meerkat or Periscope to two Social Media experts in a room to start a

debate that could go on for hours. There is no question that video is changing

how people consume content today and for the foreseeable future. Here are

some effective ways to promote using video.

Tutorials – Tutorials are basically teaching people how to use a certain

technology or how to complete a unique process. Your market will love this if

you have a certain amount of knowledge above and beyond their own that

you can pass on to them to help make their life easier. There are several

great examples of Tutorials.

For a nice video tutorial on how to change a tire – check out this video:

https://youtu.be/joBmbh0AGSQ

Webinars – Webinars are similar to tutorials but are typically used to

explain a concept more so than relating to an actual physical product.

Webinars are typically a little closer to a PowerPoint presentation or an

Enhanced Podcast. A key difference is it considered to be basically a virtual

seminar – hence the name. It allows people to interact with experts in real

time without physically being in the same physical space. Here’s a link to a

supplement company’s webinar: https://youtu.be/f8f6QNI4a7o

Animation – Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines Animation as “a way of

making a movie by using a series of drawings, computer graphics, or

photographs of objects (such as puppets or models) that are slightly different

from one another and that when viewed quickly one after another create the

appearance of movement”. Animation can be great if it’s done well and

conversely make your company look cheap and unprofessional if done

incorrectly. Some of the best animation as far as business goes typically

ends up being anamorphic characters used to promote big brands. For

example, the Kool-Aid man, Snuggles the bear, to Tony the Tiger – the list

goes on. Hate to describe the Snuggle bear as creepy but the person who

reposted this old video https://youtu.be/jYr0GA22vGE definitely thought so.

Let us know what you think. If you consider the linked video creepy – we’d

strongly suggest you avoid going down a similar vein in the future.

Testimonials – we save the best for last. Video testimonials are by far one

of the most effective ways to get new customers engaged. When one of your

potential customers hears a current customer pouring their heart out on the

excellent job you or your company did to solve their problem, a huge amount

of the buyer resistance and skepticism is going to go away. The following is

an example of video testimonial that actually, while well produced, fails in its

attempt to gain credibility in our opinion for a few reasons.

https://youtu.be/jMwrVq7pJsk

Can you guess what those are? If not, give us a call at Greater Phoenix

offices and we’ll explain what’s lacking.

Chapter 3: Content Marketing Strategies to avoid

1) Telling everyone how great you are – being from the Southwest Mr.SEO

is not a firm that focuses on telling everyone how great we are. We instead

expect that to show through in our work here in Phoenix or beyond. Likewise,

whenever you are using content marketing make sure your clear on what the

focus is – hint: it’s always the customer’s needs and desires and never how great

you or your company was last year, this year or will be in the future unless a

client specifically asks.

2) Trying to sell from jump – “Look at me, I have red widgets, they’re great

red widgets. Wanna buy some?” If a person started their first conversation with

you, using those exact words – possibly exchanging “widget” for their product or

service would you want to buy from this person? It’s our belief that most would

answer “no” and would not want to do business. Instead – and this may sound

like a mantra – focus on how you will help your prospect solve a problem or ease

a pain that they have. “Oh I’m so sorry to hear your dog has cancer…” then “Did

you know our red widgets have been proven to help fight and even cure canine

cancer 84% of the time?” Which method do you think would work in the long-term

between the first and the last?

3) Don’t do your research – that or doing sloppy research is also a big issue

as Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post found out shortly after he posted this

infographic . Instead research your subject thoroughly or at least have someone

else review your infographic or other content before you publish it and begin

promoting it.

(for more reasons check out Act-on: https://www.act-on.com/whitepaper/8-

content-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid/)

Chapter 4: Content Marketing Strategies to Embrace

1) Be honest – This is essential on the internet. Anything you say can be held

against you in the future. Anything you lie about online can and will be found out

so might as well avoid it like the plague. Just tell the truth. 2) Be interesting - If you simply spit out fact after fact, or tell people lots of facts

that they already know your social media efforts won’t go far.

3) Be funny if you’re funny – As we mentioned before humor can easily turn

laughter into revenue. If you know how to joke around without offending someone

definitely incorporate that into how you approach social media.

4) Educate before attempting to sell – So many people love to learn in

entertaining or insightful ways. By educating a client before you try to sell to them

you instantly build two things 1) credibility and 2) rapport.

5) Try to “get” only after you’ve “given” … a lot – So since many

people these days have solutions to their problems for free at the end of their

fingertips – it behooves you as business or businessperson to give just a little

more than the competition in terms of your concern, your service, your research

or your proof of knowledge before you can expect to do business.

Chapter 5: Sponsoring Content

Overview: Sponsorship of different mediums has been around since at least the

days of radio when corporate sponsors would sponsor entire episodes. It naturally

progressed into television – for example here’s an old cigarette ad -

https://youtu.be/NAExoSozc2c sponsoring The Flintstone’s – a 1960’s cartoon that was

as popular in it’s heyday as The Simpson’s is today. Of course this also goes for every

form of social media that has become prevalent due to the power of the internet.

We mention this all to say that if you are trying to interact with your target market and

don’t want to put time and effort to build a whole new social media platform that speaks

directly to them you may want to consider sponsoring someone already speaking to

your potential customers.

This could be bloggers that focus on things like: Music, Fashion or Automotive niches.

This could be podcasters that focus on things like: Comedy, Storytelling or Sports

Or

This could be vloggers that focus on things like: Beauty Bloggers, Videogames or

Unboxing (yes this last one is a major category – people opening things they buy).

One great thing about sponsorship on any of these online programs is that once you’ve

sponsored an episode – especially if it’s an early episode of a program that goes on to

become great, you have your name or company’s name showing up for the foreseeable

future.

Another great thing is because shows on any of these platforms can be extremely

niche, you don’t have to worry about the same issues that broadcast sponsors – say a

tampon manufacturer may have when broadcasting on a prime time sit-com: Do you get

your message out to several eyeballs? Yes. Do a large % of these eyeballs want

nothing to do with your product because they were born the wrong gender – yes again.

If you promote on a women’s fashion blog and you’re a women’s fashion designer you

are speaking directly to the choir.

Chapter 6: Frustrated? We @ Mr.SEO can help

So we hope this guide on Content Marketing helped you as you and your business delve into

the world of content marketing. As you can see there are a number of different platforms you

can use to get your message out. There are also some best practices you want to follow and

abide by if you want you and your business to remain relevant in the community. Are you still

unsure or even frustrated with what to do next for your content Marketing Strategy? Contact us

on our greater Phoenix office today.